U.S. Patents Awarded to Inventors in Washington (Jan. 17)

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Siebel Systems Assigned Patent
ALEXANDRIA, Va., Jan. 17 -- Siebel Systems, San Mateo, Calif., has been assigned a patent (8,355,943) developed by Stratton C. Lloyd, Seattle, and Alexander Goldstein, Foster City, Calif., for a "method and system for automatically generating forecasts."
The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: "A method and system for defining and generating forecasts. The forecast system receives a forecast definition from a user, generates a forecast in accordance with the forecast definition, stores a forecast snapshot of the generated forecast, and presents to users forecast information derived from the forecast snapshots. A forecast definition specifies the participants to be included in a forecast and when to generate the forecast. At the scheduled time, the forecast system automatically generates the forecast and stores the forecast snapshot."
The patent application was filed on Nov. 18, 2011 (13/299,994). The full-text of the patent can be found at http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-bool.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&co1=AND&d=PTXT&s1=8,355,943&OS=8,355,943&RS=8,355,943
Written by Satyaban Rath; edited by Hemanta Panigrahi.

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Cypress Semiconductor Assigned Patent
ALEXANDRIA, Va., Jan. 17 -- Cypress Semiconductor, San Jose, Calif., has been assigned a patent (8,355,887) developed by Richard Harding, Cedar Park, Texas, and John B. Foreman, Edmonds, Wash., for "proximity based gesturing devices, systems and methods."
The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: "A device may include a plurality of sensors substantially coplanar with one another in a sensor plane, each sensor generating a sense value that varies according to a physical distance between the sensor and an object without contacting the object; and control circuits that generates at least first position values, second position values and third position values in response to the sensor values, the first and second position values identifying a position in a space adjacent to the sensor plane."
The patent application was filed on April 26, 2005 (12/767,690). The full-text of the patent can be found at http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-bool.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&co1=AND&d=PTXT&s1=8,355,887&OS=8,355,887&RS=8,355,887
Written by Satyaban Rath; edited by Hemanta Panigrahi.

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: " A system may include utensil means for portioning a foodstuff into a first portion and a second portion, a means for detecting a first portion size for the first portion with the utensil means, a means for detecting a second portion size for the second portion with the utensil means, and a means for determining a cumulative amount of portioned foodstuff based upon the first portion size and the second portion size. "
The patent application was filed on Nov. 14, 2005 (12/313,024). The full-text of the patent can be found at http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-bool.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&co1=AND&d=PTXT&s1=8,355,875&OS=8,355,875&RS=8,355,875
Written by Satyaban Rath; edited by Hemanta Panigrahi.

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Sharp Laboratories of America Assigned Patent
ALEXANDRIA, Va., Jan. 17 -- Sharp Laboratories of America, Camas, Wash., has been assigned a patent (8,355,452) developed by Sachin G. Deshpande, Vancouver, Wash., for a "selective frame dropping for initial buffer delay reduction."
The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: "The embodiments of the present invention provide for methods, devices, and systems adapted to reduce initial buffering delay encountered at the client side by selectively dropping content elements of a source content within a drop interval prior to transmission to a client or receiver. The drop interval associated with the initial buffering delay value at the client."
The patent application was filed on Aug. 18, 2006 (11/465,761). The full-text of the patent can be found at http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=83,55,452.PN.&OS=PN/83,55,452&RS=PN/83,55,452
Written by Amal Ahmed; edited by Jaya Anand.

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Boeing Assigned Patent
ALEXANDRIA, Va., Jan. 17 -- Boeing, Chicago, has been assigned a patent (8,356,244) developed by Kurt J. Vandermolen, Bellavue, Wash., and Peter R. Nelson, Puyallup, Wash., for a "managing changes in aircraft maintenance data."
The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: "Airline operator-customers manage aircraft maintenance data for fleets of commercial aircraft using a suite of electronic maintenance tools that are delivered to the customers over the Internet and viewed with a web browser. The maintenance tool suite includes an authoring module that allows customers to create, edit and manage both OEM originated aircraft maintenance data and the customers' own data within a fully integrated environment running as a web application over the Internet. The authoring module combines workflow, XML authoring and editing, import/export of the data, change reconciliation, and publishing of airline customer authored documents, airline customer authored changes, OEM Temporary Revisions, and OEM aircraft maintenance documents into a single integrated web application using XML as the maintenance document format. The use of XML as the native format of the aircraft maintenance data allows the customers to reuse the data in a variety of ways."
The patent application was filed on June 20, 2006 (11/471,128). The full-text of the patent can be found at http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=8,356,244.PN.&OS=PN/8,356,244&RS=PN/8,356,244
Written by Kusum Sangma; edited by Anand Kumar.

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Intel Assigned Patent for Non-blocking UEFI I/O Channel Enhancements
ALEXANDRIA, Va., Jan. 17 -- Intel, Santa Clara, Calif., has been assigned a patent (8,356,168) developed by Vincent J. Zimmer, Federal Way, Wash., Michael A. Rothman, Puyallup, Wash., and Mark S. Doran, Olympia, Wash., for a "non-blocking UEFI I/O channel enhancements."
The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: "A method and apparatus for providing platform initialization enhancements is discussed herein. In one embodiment, buses, activities, devices, and/or nodes to be processed during boot, are processed in a non-blocking fashion, which potentially results in faster boot times. Moreover, some devices/nodes, such as root nodes, may be boot in an early phase of initialization to enhance both available resources and initialization times. Furthermore, early connects in an early phase of initialization may be performed to construct partial or entire device paths, which also potentially results in faster boot times."
The patent application was filed on June 19, 2008 (12/142,086). The full-text of the patent can be found at http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=8,356,168.PN.&OS=PN/8,356,168&RS=PN/8,356,168
Written by Kusum Sangma; edited by Anand Kumar.

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: "An approach to region selection which extends beyond traces and selects super-regions. A super-region (SR) contains arbitrary control flow, such as interprocedural nested loops, that provides a larger scope for transformation (e.g. optimization) than traces. Hardware samples are used to identify SRs that contain the hot code of a client process without requiring any static program information."
The patent application was filed on Sept. 14, 2009 (12/558,938). The full-text of the patent can be found at http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=8,356,165.PN.&OS=PN/8,356,165&RS=PN/8,356,165
Written by Kusum Sangma; edited by Anand Kumar.

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: "Embodiments are configured to improve the stability of a Web browser by identifying plug-in modules that cause failures. Data in memory at the time of a failure is analyzed, and a failure signature is generated. The failure signature is compared to a database of known failure signatures so that the source of the failure may be identified. If a plug-in module to a Web browser is identified as the source of a failure, options are presented to the user who may update the plug-in module with code that does not produce a failure or disable the plug-in module altogether."
The patent application was filed on Feb. 3, 2012 (13/365,990). The full-text of the patent can be found at http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=8,356,211.PN.&OS=PN/8,356,211&RS=PN/8,356,211
Written by Kusum Sangma; edited by Anand Kumar.

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: "Minimizing code duplication in an unbounded transactional memory system. A computing apparatus including one or more processors in which it is possible to use a set of common mode-agnostic TM barrier sequences that runs on legacy ISA and extended ISA processors, and that employs hardware filter indicators (when available) to filter redundant applications of TM barriers, and that enables a compiled binary representation of the subject code to run correctly in any of the currently implemented set of transactional memory execution modes, including running the code outside of a transaction, and that enables the same compiled binary to continue to work with future TM implementations which may introduce as yet unknown future TM execution modes."
The patent application was filed on June 26, 2009 (12/493,168). The full-text of the patent can be found at http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=8,356,166.PN.&OS=PN/8,356,166&RS=PN/8,356,166
Written by Kusum Sangma; edited by Anand Kumar.

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: "A processing device may automatically provide protective services and may provide backup services for backing up and restoring user files, system files, configuration files, as well as other information. The processing device may be configured to check one or more performance conditions and perform an action to improve performance based on the one or more performance conditions. The processing device may monitor configuration and file changes and provide a user with a capability to persist or discard configuration changes and/or file changes made by an application during a session. The processing device may include a recovery button or switch, which when selected or pressed may cause the processing device to be restored to an operational state. The processing device may automatically detect instabilities and may automatically attempt to repair possible causes of the instabilities. The processing device may also include an additional chipset, which may perform backup and recovery services."
The patent application was filed on Feb. 11, 2011 (13/025,747). The full-text of the patent can be found at http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=8,356,209.PN.&OS=PN/8,356,209&RS=PN/8,356,209
Written by Kusum Sangma; edited by Anand Kumar.

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: "Real-time query expansion (RTQE) is a process of supplementing an original query with additional terms or expansion choices that are ranked according to some figure of merit and presented while users are still formulating their queries. Individual terms may be combined and submitted as a phrase into a query. By building the phase term-by-term, users can compositionally formulate queries while maintaining the same benefits that other RTQE interfaces offer. The benefits include, reducing the number of keystrokes and improving retrieval performance. To promote greater flexibility in its working environment, the number of terms that are presented on a display may be reduced. In place of some terms, placeholders may be used and expanded by the user when necessary. This allows phrases to be readily presented on small displays (e.g., hand-held devices)."
The patent application was filed on June 17, 2008 (12/140,279). The full-text of the patent can be found at http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-bool.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&co1=AND&d=PTXT&s1=8,356,041&OS=8,356,041&RS=8,356,041
Written by Arpi Sharma; edited by Anand Kumar.

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: "A predictive model is employed to schedule preemptive queries based on frequently utilized query paths in hierarchically structured data. The predictive model determining queries likely to be executed by a user or organization is generated and dynamically modified based on user or organization profiles, usage history, and similar factors. Queries are then executed according to a predefined schedule based on the predictive model and results cached. Cached results are provided to a requesting user more rapidly saving network and computing resources."
The patent application was filed on Aug. 31, 2009 (12/550,539). The full-text of the patent can be found at http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-bool.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&co1=AND&d=PTXT&s1=8,356,026&OS=8,356,026&RS=8,356,026
Written by Arpi Sharma; edited by Anand Kumar.

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University of Washington Assigned Patent
ALEXANDRIA, Va., Jan. 17 -- The University of Washington, Seattle, has been assigned a patent (8,355,683) developed by Edwin A. Suominen, Valley, Wash., for a "simplified high frequency tuner and tuning method."
The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: "A disclosed method tunes a signal from a channelized spectrum having a predetermined channel spacing. A signal of interest having a predetermined maximum bandwidth is mixed with a local oscillator signal, which has a frequency that is an integer multiple of the channel spacing or one-half of a channel spacing displaced from an integer multiple of the channel spacing. The local oscillator signal is selected to frequency translate the signal of interest to within a near-baseband passband whose lower edge is spaced from DC by at least about the maximum bandwidth of the signal of interest. Problems associated with 1/f noise, DC offsets, and self-mixing products are avoided or substantially diminished. Other methods and systems are also disclosed."
The patent application was filed on March 30, 2010 (12/749,742). The full-text of the patent can be found at http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-bool.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&co1=AND&d=PTXT&s1=8,355,683&OS=8,355,683&RS=8,355,683
Written by Arpi Sharma; edited by Anand Kumar.

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Adobe Systems Assigned Patent
ALEXANDRIA, Va., Jan. 17 -- Adobe Systems, San Jose, Calif., has been assigned a patent (8,355,592) developed by Eli Shechtman, Seattle, and Dan Goldman, Seattle, for "generating a modified image with semantic constraint."
The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: "A computer-implemented method for generating a modified image includes initiating, in a computer device, a patch-based optimization algorithm for using a first image to generate a second image. The method includes identifying, in a computer device, a first feature of a first image. The identification corresponds to a constraint on the first feature for generating a second image, The constraint restricts at least one of location and geometric orientation in the second image of patches representing the first feature. The method includes identifying, using the computer device, contents for the second image by processing patches in the image in iterations of the patch-based optimization algorithm. The patch-based optimization complies with the constraint, The method includes generating the second image from the identified contents based on the iterations of the patch-based optimization algorithm. The second image includes a second feature generated to represent the first feature and complying with the constraint."
The patent application was filed on May 21, 2009 (12/454,661). The full-text of the patent can be found at http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-bool.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&co1=AND&d=PTXT&s1=8,355,592&OS=8,355,592&RS=8,355,592
Written by Arpi Sharma; edited by Anand Kumar.

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Lockheed Martin Assigned Patent
ALEXANDRIA, Va., Jan. 17 -- Lockheed Martin, Bethesda, Md., has been assigned a patent (8,355,608) developed by Yongdan Hu, Bothell, Wash., for a "method and apparatus for in-line fiber-cladding-light dissipation."
The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: "Apparatus and method for in-line cladding-light dissipation including forming a light-scattering surface on the optical fiber such that the light-scattering surface scatters cladding light away from the optical fiber. In some embodiments, the apparatus includes an optical fiber having a core and a first cladding layer that surrounds the core, wherein a first portion of the optical fiber has a light-scattering exterior surface. Some embodiments further include a transparent enclosure, wherein the transparent enclosure includes an opening that extends from a first end of the transparent enclosure to a second end of the transparent enclosure, and wherein at least the first portion of the optical fiber is located within the opening of the transparent enclosure. Some embodiments include a light-absorbing housing that surrounds the optical fiber and the transparent enclosure and is configured to absorb the light scattered away from the optical fiber by the light-scattering exterior surface."
The patent application was filed on June 3, 2010 (12/793,508). The full-text of the patent can be found at http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-bool.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&co1=AND&d=PTXT&s1=8,355,608&OS=8,355,608&RS=8,355,608
Written by Arpi Sharma; edited by Anand Kumar.

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SonoSite Assigned Patent
ALEXANDRIA, Va., Jan. 17 -- SonoSite, Bothell, Wash., has been assigned a patent (8,355,554) developed by Qinglin Ma, Woodinville, Wash., and Nikolaos Pagoulatos, Bothell, Wash., for "systems and methods for adaptive volume imaging."
The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: "Systems and methods which provide volume imaging by implementing survey and target imaging modes are shown. According to embodiments, a survey imaging mode is implemented to provide a volume image of a relatively large survey area. A target of interest is preferably identified within the survey area for use in a target imaging mode. Embodiments implement a target imaging mode to provide a volume image of a relatively small target area corresponding to the identified target of interest. The target imaging mode preferably adapts the beamforming, volume field of view, and/or other signal and image processing algorithms to the target area. In operation according to embodiments, the target imaging mode provides a volume image of a target area with improved volume rate and image quality."
The patent application was filed on April 14, 2009 (12/423,492). The full-text of the patent can be found at http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-bool.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&co1=AND&d=PTXT&s1=8,355,554&OS=8,355,554&RS=8,355,554
Written by Arpi Sharma; edited by Anand Kumar.

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AT&T Mobility II Assigned Patent
ALEXANDRIA, Va., Jan. 17 -- AT&T Mobility II, Atlanta, has been assigned a patent (8,355,475) developed by Siavash Alamouti, Kirkland, Wash., and Vahid Tarokh, Cambridge, Mass., for a "diversity technique for wireless communications."
The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: "A simple block coding arrangement is created with symbols transmitted over a plurality of transmit channels, in connection with coding that comprises only simple arithmetic operations, such as negation and conjugation. The diversity created by the transmitter utilizes space diversity and either time or frequency diversity. Space diversity is effected by redundantly transmitting over a plurality of antennas, time diversity is effected by redundantly transmitting at different times, and frequency diversity is effected by redundantly transmitting at different frequencies:"
The patent application was filed on March 28, 2011 (13/073,369). The full-text of the patent can be found at http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-bool.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&co1=AND&d=PTXT&s1=8,355,475&OS=8,355,475&RS=8,355,475
Written by Arpi Sharma; edited by Anand Kumar.